The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner
1907
The year 1907 was filled with intense activity through tours in Germany and other countries. Rudolf Steiner was moving about almost the whole time and returned only for short intervals to his place of residence. If all the exertions imposed by such journeys—the lectures, the writing activity, the daily consultations and discussions with many persons—are considered, it may be possible to realize what extraordinary capacity for concentration was necessary to generate under these conditions a continuous creative activity such as other men are able to accomplish only in monkish seclusion, in the study of the scholar or the solitude of the philosopher or writer. In The Course of My Life Rudolf Steiner says about that epoch: “For me the years from 1901 to 1907 or 1908 approximately were a time in which I stood with all the forces of the soul under the impression of the facts and the Beings of the spiritual world that were drawing close to me. Out of the experience of the spiritual world in general developed specific details of knowledge.”
The experience of the Spirit was never an aim in itself, but it was transformed and passed on in the form of helping and healing gifts of knowledge for suffering mankind.
The lecturing of 1907 began with several pedagogical themes. At the same time Dr. Steiner also dealt with medical questions—for instance, on January 20 and 21: How Can Illness and Death Be Understood? and on February 14: Wisdom and Health. A special theme was dealt with on January 26 and 31, which appeared at this time more and more as a social problem: Insanity from the Standpoint of Spiritual Science. Later, on the basis of Dr. Steiner’s helpful indications for the healing of mental illnesses, sanitaria were opened—for adults by Dr. Friedrich Husemann at Wiesneck, Germany; for backward children by Dr. Ita Wegman at Arlesheim, Switzerland, and by collaborators of Dr. Wegman in several countries.
In the spring quarter, Dr. Steiner lectured in different cities on religious questions, the subject in January being The Bible and Wisdom, followed by The Sermon on the Mount and The Lord’s Prayer; on February 17, The Origin of Religious Faiths and Forms of Prayer; in March in Bonn, Esoteric Christianity; and for Easter in Munich and Berlin, The Mysteries of the Spirit, the Son, and the Father and The Sin against the Holy Ghost and the Idea of Christian Grace. The freeing of human beings from egotistically tinged ties of blood, which had once been the characteristic of pre-Christian times and which, through the Mystery of Golgotha and the Act of Redemption by God the Son, had been overcome for all mankind, so that all may again unite in a higher spiritual community—this was brought to the forefront in those Easter lectures as being the central Event of earthly history.
To the spiritual reality of salvation and of grace, he devoted many lectures in the coming years, a fact which deserves special notice because the reproach was leveled against Dr. Steiner here and there by badly informed theologians that his Anthroposophy knew only the concept of fate, never that of salvation and grace. This is, of course, an entirely erroneous accusation; for, through all the years of his lecturing, of research in spiritual reality, and of spiritual experience, he repeatedly showed what a decisive influence the element of grace exerts precisely in the life of the researcher; how very necessary it is to await the correct point of time in life’s rhythm in order to be able to receive spiritual experiences; and how the decision on the degree of maturity demanded by the different stages of inner development lies with the Spiritual Beings and Powers above man. But man, for his part, must possess the needed will to call his inner forces into activity in order to develop the spiritual organs which are able to receive the spiritual message.
In a lecture on January 14, 1907, Rudolf Steiner referred to the “ignorabimus” mood of resignation of the nineteenth century, which he said could be surmounted by the spiritual science of the twentieth century, which opens itself actively to inspiration. A listener reported out of these lectures: “If man did not possess eyes, he would not see the light; if he had an electrical sense, he would be able with this to apprehend corresponding conditions of forces. ‘There are as many worlds as there are organs.’ Spiritual science shows that it is possible to lift man higher—that it is possible to broaden the boundaries of knowledge. Fichte was cognizant of ‘the higher sense’ and described vividly how the ‘unseeing’ behave toward one who has evolved and developed it. The transition from darkness to light had been known to the religions and to sages and poets. This awakening of the soul to vision had been a spiritual rebirth, he said, of greater importance than the physical birth. The Bible had been written by persons who had experienced this rebirth.”
Regarding the content and consciousness-awaking forces of St. John’s Gospel, he stated, according to the same report: “Whoever tries for days or years to understand the opening sentences notices that this book is different from other books. This book possesses magic power. If we allowed it to become living within us, we should then be able to see into the spiritual world. In this way it had been used by many as a compendium of exercises, not as a reference book for historical research. One obtains a new eye. Just as the external light has called forth the organ of sight, so does Christ create in us the idea of the Christ.”
Rudolf Steiner regarded the Gospels also, therefore, as writings for spiritual exercise, recorded by initiated personalities, in order to discipline by the right meditation upon those words and contents the spiritual organs with which man is able by grace to receive the inspiration through which Spiritual Beings unveil the cosmic plan and its process of coming into being. This introduction to religious questions reached its height at the Easter Festival in the lectures, referred to above, on The Mysteries of the Spirit, the Son, and the Father. Then followed lectures in four parts on The Apocalypse, at Munich, dealing with this inspired document especially difficult to understand, which Rudolf Steiner expounded in 1908 in detail in a lecture cycle to members, and at the end of his life, in 1924, before a circle of priests of The Christian Community.
In contrast with his critics among the churchmen, one prominent theologian, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, who had made himself thoroughly conversant with Rudolf Steiner’s works, testified in his excellent book, Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life, that it was precisely Dr. Steiner who, “like no other before him, had taught the Christ Deed, the unmerited Act of Grace far beyond our power of thought, as the decisive event for mankind, without which all humanity would have been lost, and which humanity itself could never have achieved, so that upon it he rested the whole future of humanity and the whole future of each individual. ... He said ‘the higher one rises, the more it becomes grace.’ ... To him his own loftiest research was naught else than receiving grace. But he spoke little about it, nor did he speak the language of theology.”
In the course of this series of lectures at the beginning of 1907, Dr. Steiner again visited Switzerland, as he did every year, and spoke on February 5 in the Great Hall of the Bernoullianum in Basel before an audience of 500 persons on The Riddle Questions of Existence, and on February 7 in Bern on The Wisdom Teaching of Christianity.
Soon thereafter he traveled to Austria. So far as is known to the author, this was the first time since those distant days which he had spent in Vienna as a young man that Rudolf Steiner, as the founder of the Anthroposophical Movement, now gave lectures there. On February 21 and 22, he delivered a public lecture on Research in the Supersensible and Its Mission in the Present Day, and also a lecture for members on Inner Development.
This must surely have been a strange experience to return after thirty-five years—five seven-year periods—to the scene of his youthful studies and, for the first time, to speak before a large audience on Research in the Supersensible, as established by him. Here was another example of the seven-year rhythm, so clearly discernible in the lives of all exceptional personalities, which determines not only in childhood but also in later life in so strange a fashion the maturing process of their lives.
On February 25, he spoke in Prague, for the first time, on The Education of the Child from the Standpoint of Spiritual Science, and on February 24 for the first time in Budapest on the same subject dealt with in Vienna. There followed a lecture tour to many cities.
During Whitsun, there began on May 18 the Munich Congress of the Federation of European Sections under his leadership. At the conclusion of his unfinished autobiography, Rudolf Steiner refers in the following way to the element of art so intensely brought to expression in that Congress:
“These Congresses, which had previously been held in London, Amsterdam, and Paris, included programs in which Theosophical problems were dealt with in lectures and discussions. They were planned on the model of congresses of learned societies. The administrative problems of the Society also were discussed.
“All of this was very much modified in Munich. In the great Concert Hall, where the conferences were to be held, we—the organizers—provided interior decorations which were to correspond artistically in form and color with the mood prevailing in the oral program. Artistic environment and spiritual activity in space were to constitute a harmonious unity. In this connection I attached the greatest possible value to the avoidance of abstract inartistic symbolism and to giving free expression to artistic feeling.
“Into the program of the Congress was introduced an artistic presentation. Marie von Sivers had long before translated Schuré's reconstruction of the Eleusinian Drama. I arranged it as to language for dramatic presentation. This play we introduced in the program. A connection with the ancient institution of the Mysteries—even though in ever so feeble a form—was thus afforded. But the important thing was that the Congress now included an artistic element—an artistic element indicating the intention of not leaving the spiritual life henceforth void of art within the Society. Marie von Sivers, who had undertaken the role of Demeter, showed already clearly in her presentation the nuances which drama was to reach in the Society. Besides, we had arrived at a time when the art of declamation and recitation, developed by Marie von Sivers by working outward from the inner force of the word, had reached the decisive point, from which further fruitful progress could be made in that field.”
Some six hundred participants and delegates from many countries came to the Concert Hall in Munich for the Congress, which was opened by Rudolf Steiner at ten o’clock in the forenoon on May 18. He began by welcoming the Lady President, Mrs. Besant, and the Section Representatives, and paid respect to the late President, Col. Olcott, who had died on February 17—taking this opportunity again to emphasize that the activity of the late President had been characterized by the fact that “he had respected the efforts of every individual to develop himself in his own way, according to his own nature.”
Following this address of the Representative of the German Section, the delegates from England, France, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia, Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, Russia, Bulgaria, and the United States transmitted the greetings from their respective countries. There followed then an address by Mrs. Besant. A student, Kleeberg, gave in his memoirs the impression made by this personality: “A stately old lady in a white silk garment and with silvery hair. Her talk was most remarkable, all music and rhythm. It was a noteworthy sight to see Rudolf Steiner and Annie Besant standing side by side. Even then they represented two opposites. In five years it came to an open break.”
Mrs. Besant paid tribute in the friendliest manner to the “genius loci” by remarking: “It is good that we are able to meet in Germany, for we are in the land of the great philosophers, the outstanding poets, the great artists and mystics. There have lived here mighty leaders of intellectual and spiritual power, men who have contributed much to the knowledge of the world. And if, too, we meet at a time of trial and confusion, out of travail will be born new life.”
After these opening speeches, a general inspection of the impressive decorations of the Great Hall was made. There was a collection of paintings and sculpture to be seen. The Hall itself had been given intense color effect through the use of red textile materials. We refer to this later.
In the afternoon of the first day, there were a number of lectures by delegates, including an important one by Michael Bauer on The Relation of Nature to the Human Being. This brilliant and artistic man of learning contributed greatly for many years to the progress of the Movement. A program of music and declamation took place in the evening. Frl. von Sivers recited passages from the Second Part of Goethe’s Faust, thus beginning in a certain sense her great lifework; thirty years later she brought to presentation on the stage at the Goetheanum the entire Faust, both Parts I and II, in their entirety.
On Whitsunday, the 19th, the audience had the experience of hearing two lectures in succession, the first by Mrs. Besant on The Nature of Phenomenalism, and the second by Rudolf Steiner on The Initiation of the Rosicrucians. Once again, it was possible to experience the essential difference between Eastern and Western tradition and spiritual pattern. Whereas Mrs. Besant made H. P. Blavatsky her starting point, it was significant that Rudolf Steiner, in the words of a member in the audience, “began with a reference to a word of Hegel’s on cognition and ended with an apothegm of Goethe’s. ... He dealt with the yoga path and with Christian initiation, and described that of the Rosicrucians as suited to the present age. It would be a misnomer to maintain that Rudolf Steiner had set up a ‘program.’ It was his message, the message of the spiritual school whose teacher and prophet he was. He spoke again on the 20th on The Planetary and the Human Evolution. He showed how human evolution was united with that of the cosmos. The task grew clear and the future was pre-illuminated. History, sagas, and myths grew transparent. ... But how did it really come about that this man’s words were received by ear and heart like rain from heaven by the plowed earth? Here was a kinship. He spoke out of that which rested in the depths. It was not required of one to be credulous, blind, or without judgment. He did not demand this; he even discouraged it. He spoke only out of knowledge and actual research and experience. After all, we had once upon a time ourselves experienced this, and now it rested at the bottom of the ocean of our soul. What he did was to evoke it, and our prenatal soul-being rubbed its eyes!”
Rudolf Steiner had the exceptional capability of awakening in one the power of remembrance of the spiritual nature of the universe, out of which we are all born, and of training one to conscious powers of knowledge for the future.
On Whitsunday the Sacred Drama of Eleusis, Edouard Schuré's Mystery Play, was produced on the stage, an appropriate space having been provided in the Hall by artistically formed pillars and columns. Every detail of the arrangement, costumes, and scenery had been carried out in accordance with Rudolf Steiner’s instruction.
Regarding the origin and idea of the drama, Edouard Schuré wrote:
“The truth of what I had instinctively visualized and represented was recognized by Rudolf Steiner, who justified my creation. He recognized the Eleusinian Mystery to be the point of departure of true drama. . . . The Mystery of Eleusis was a festival of the Greeks lasting nine days, celebrated every five years at Michaelmas, whose closing act, on the ninth day, was the Sacred. Drama. Through it the path to the spiritual world and, on the ninth day, the entry into it were represented. I had reproduced this drama with its prologue, and Rudolf Steiner directed its preparation for its first dramatic performance.”
Dr. Steiner himself later on said in regard to this performance:
“For this drama reaches up into those ages of European cultural development in which the spiritual currents of humanity which confront us separately as science, art, and religion were not yet sundered from one another, but were bound intimately together. Through it we find that our feeling reverts in a certain measure to distant ages of European cultural development, to those ages when a unified culture, born directly out of the deepest spiritual life, imbued human souls with religious fervor, in the highest degree of attainment possible for the human soul, so that, in this culture, there pulsed directly a religious life. And it may be said that this culture was religion.”
The third day of the Congress, May 20, was given up to lectures and reports. Dr. Carl Unger spoke on the new aspects of world views and on the practical form of Group work. In the afternoon, Rudolf Steiner gave his second lecture, on Planetary and Human Evolution, in which the sevenfold rhythmic nature of development came to expression.
At the close of the Congress, on Tuesday, May 21, after a free discussion by the participants, Dr. Steiner conducted a tour to inspect the decorations of the building, explaining at the same time the underlying thoughts and aims, in the course of which he came to speak of the nature of the basic colors used, which had made a powerful impression upon the members, and which were also later on reproduced in the color decorations of the Groups in other places. As editor of Goethe’s scientific works, Rudolf Steiner had applied himself closely to Goethe’s ideas on the sensible-ethical effect of colors. He now showed how red and blue affect, not only the eye, but also man’s whole spiritual nature in such a manner as to call up the complementary colors within the mind. Hence the exoteric as well as esoteric centers where spiritual tasks were once performed were accustomed to reckon with the influences of the realm of colors, especially of red and blue.
I may be permitted in this connection to mention a characteristic incident from a later period, when the second Goetheanum was being built according to Rudolf Steiner’s model and instructions. I approached him with my idea of adopting a yellow tone for the room where it would be my duty to receive visitors. He gazed at me for a moment with a friendly smile and said: “If you wish to find yourself at loggerheads with your visitors, you may paint the room yellow. I myself would paint it blue.” Of course, I followed his advice, and I have since had the opportunity on countless occasions for observing the soothing effect both on the occupants and the visitors of the dark-blue walls of this room. The “sensible-ethical” effect of colors, discovered by Goethe and subjected to closer investigation by Rudolf Steiner, was thus translated into practical life. The decoration of the Congress Hall in 1907 also had become a vital nucleus for further developments and new insights.
During the tour of the hall, Dr. Steiner gave an explanation of the artistically incorporated seven seals and columns of the hall, showing how a profound study of the twelve signs of the zodiac, which also had been set up, would enable art to achieve a closer relation with the phenomena of life in the cosmos. This should not happen merely symbolically or allegorically, however, as that would be inartistic. It should take place in the spirit of organic growth, of the creative impulse of the Powers at work in nature. In the evening of May 21, he delivered the final address, after a musical performance, and announced that the next Congress would take place two years later in Budapest.
During the intervening period, however, there occurred—at first in secret and then more openly—events which proved of decisive influence upon the further growth of the Movement. Even during the Munich Congress, as already related, the fundamental differences separating the two spiritual currents had been perceptible to close observers. This applied both to the respective sources of knowledge and to the manner of communication; but, in particular, to the esoteric work. For, since 1905, there had existed a small circle for esoteric training, within which Rudolf Steiner not only made a connection with other traditions, but from the outset trod a new path in respect both of matter and of method. In The Course of My Life he observes, regarding these divergences: “Thus it was that, outwardly, my smaller circle had the appearance in the earlier years of being a section of Mrs. Besant’s esoteric school. Inwardly it was anything but this; and, in 1907, when Mrs. Besant was among us at the Theosophical Congress in Munich, any outward connection was also brought to an end as a result of an agreement made between Mrs. Besant and myself.” Even during the Munich Congress it was realized and agreed that the two paths would have to separate.
Mrs. Besant returned, after her short visit to the Congress at Munich, to her distant scene of activity in India, while Rudolf Steiner took up his usual activity with unvarying consequence.
In May 1907, he gave two public lectures in Munich on The Bible and Wisdom, followed by a cycle of fourteen lectures on The Theosophy of the Rosicrucians, in which he gave a picture, varied by the selection of a fresh aspect, of the evolution of cosmos, earth, and man, of the forms of human existence during earth-life and between death and rebirth, and of the transformation in man himself to be achieved through spiritual effort, through self-discipline. Above all, he explained the relation between destiny and freedom, as this arises by reason of man’s position in the cosmic processes of creation. This is especially important, since it is often asserted that the law of karma is irreconcilable with the principle of freedom. Rudolf Steiner formulated the result of his own research in regard to man’s position as follows:
“At every moment, he is free to make new entries in his karmic book of life; therefore, let no man think life is determined by an inexorable law of destiny. Freedom is not infringed by the law of karma. We have to think, therefore, just as much of the future as of the past in considering karmic law. We bear within us the consequences of past deeds and we are slaves of the past, but we are lords of the future.”
This description he concluded in the sense of a pure Rosicrucianism with the words:
“If understood not merely as an abstraction, but as having brought about knowledge, it can then work directly into life. When this knowledge flows into all our limbs, from the head into the heart and thence into the hand and into all our activities, then we have grasped the basis of our Movement, we have then understood the great cultural task which has been put into our hands. Out of this knowledge are then developed the feelings which a more easy-going person would prefer to develop directly.
“Rosicrucian Theosophy does not desire to revel in feeling, but wishes to keep in view the facts of the spirit. Man must cooperate; he must let himself be stimulated by the facts which have been imparted to him by description; he must allow these facts to release in him feelings and emotions. In such a sense, spiritual science is meant to become a mighty impulse for the world of feeling but, at the same time, to be that which leads us directly into the fact of supersensible perception.”
During June 16-29 Dr. Steiner gave an additional cycle on Theosophy and Rosicrucianism in Wilhelmshöhe bei Cassel, supplementing the Munich lectures, and clarifying the influence of the earthly path on the life after death.
July was devoted to writing in Berlin. In these earlier phases of the Movement, Dr. Steiner was able now and again to devote himself in the summer months to his writing activity and holiday visits. He used often to accompany the family of Frl. von Sivers and a few friends to country health resorts, where—as she related to me—he would devote himself in his charming and warm-hearted manner to her mother. Because of his entirely different style of life and spheres of interest, these must have seemed somewhat peculiar to Frau von Sivers. But he well understood how to bring the two different ways of life into harmony by his open-minded and kindly nature. During those summer months, he was thus enabled to enjoy in this intimate circle some very pleasant experiences, varied by occasional travel.
This year the district around Bayreuth was visited—the Margravial Castle, the Hermitage, and the beautiful park, as well as the Inn where, a century earlier, Jean Paul had been allotted by the widow Roller, the innkeeper, a modest room in which he could do his writing in peace and quiet. The modest and homelike chamber is still preserved in its original character. A decade had passed since Rudolf Steiner had published, in 1897, the works of Jean Paul with a biographical introduction. In this he displayed his power of objective insight into the stronger traits as well as the defects of this character, who “was endowed for a life in the grand manner.” This visit to the scene of activity of the philosopher-poet in Bayreuth was thus of significance in renewing contact with a sphere of life in which Dr. Steiner had once played the role of biographer.
In September, after his summer holiday, he visited Switzerland in order to give two public lectures in Bern, on Before and after Death and The Purpose of Suffering. He chose this time for paying a private visit to Edouard Schuré at Barr in Alsace. Schuré was then working on a French translation of Rudolf Steiner’s work Christianity as Mystical Fact, and during these days of friendly intercourse Dr. Steiner gave him for his personal information notes on his own development, his first meetings with spiritual Leader personalities, and the tasks of Rosicrucianism.
In Stuttgart Rudolf Steiner gave four lectures between September 13 and 16 on Occult Signs and Symbols and Their Connection with the Astral and Spiritual Worlds. Following this, an introductory course lasting fourteen days brought many friends together in Hannover between September 21 and October 4. In Leipzig two interesting medical themes were dealt with on October 11 and 12: Morbid Conditions in the Light of Spiritual Science and The Fever of Health in the Light of Spiritual Science.
On October 10, the winter season lecturing was opened at the Berlin Architektenhaus with lectures on The Mission of Occult Science in Our Time; Natural Science at the Parting of the Ways; Knowledge of the Soul and of the Spirit; The Descent of Man, while foremost among lectures for members was that on Ancient Nordic Persian, and Germanic Myths and Sagas.
On the occasion of the fifth General Meeting of the Section, beginning on October 20, Dr. Steiner made clear that he attached great importance to the private work of individuals among themselves and in the Groups, not only on account of the opportunity afforded for working through and improving the knowledge acquired by the many diversified gifts of individual members, but also on account of the educational value which the understanding cooperation of persons of such extremely different training, ways of life, professions, etc. brought with it. He never ceased to call upon members for intensive cultivation and expansion of Group activity as a means for enhancing the development of the Movement. It was an important task which fell to the older members during later developments to introduce the newer members through Group courses to the results of research already imparted to the former. He once remarked at the beginning of a new lecture cycle in the winter of 19O8-’O9 regarding these introductory courses: “I should like to appeal to you to pay the utmost attention to these courses. For it is obviously necessary to have a place where one can advance further with the lectures; otherwise we should every year need to make a fresh start.” Again, at the end of another lecture cycle, he stressed the need for a “united diligence” in the Society. He foresaw the need for this inner strengthening and concentration upon the spiritual material of the Movement, particularly in the years that followed; for already there was perceptible on the horizon the first signs of storm, hinting at the dispute provoked by the devious, contentious, and even slanderous attitude on the part of the circle which surrounded Mrs. Besant and which attempted to exercise its influence from a distance. In the address of welcome to the members of the Section at the General Meeting were to be detected, therefore, the subterranean rumblings, as it were, of coming events. As we know from the conscientious reports supplied by Mathilde Scholl, Rudolf Steiner observed:
“Not only what we deal with on such occasions as this must be taken into account, but the fact that we are gathered together here, that a much more intimate exchange of thoughts is possible through this direct contact with one another than is ordinarily the case. This must also be counted among the things worth taking into consideration in an assembly such as ours...
“There exist many parties, many movements and societies for the furtherance of this or that good cause. All of these cannot but disseminate the good according to their beliefs, fight against the opposing evils. In this, however, is to be seen the difference between our Society and these others—namely, that our Society is able to withstand the attacks of the hostile forces from various directions and that our members do not show concern, not even in words, but quietly carry on the work.
“It is possible that we shall not always be in a position to maintain this attitude; to particularize, it is possible that the spirit which has permeated certain occult circles, including those which claim to be theosophical, will compel us at times to take a stand. It is not always possible to realize the highest ideals in the outside world; we shall, however, not for a moment be in doubt that, if we should be forced to fight for our spiritual world conception, this conflict will count as wasted time. Perhaps, we may be compelled to make this sacrifice of lost time, of wasted work. But we shall then be conscious that these things do not belong to the principal objectives we are working for.”
In that assembly of October 20, 1907, he was able to point, in the meantime, to the fruitfulness of the work so far accomplished. In recapitulating the activities of the Section, he affirmed: “Our Movement within Central Europe has increased in a very satisfying degree. The present manner of working, which has been carried on in the same spirit as heretofore, has undoubtedly stood the test.” There were at that time 28 Groups and the membership had increased to 872. Of much interest was a warning voiced by Rudolf Steiner out of his previous long experience, but which only later proved its particular validity: “I can well understand that friends who stand somewhat remote from affairs believe that they can do something to help by getting articles printed in the press. But I am bound to say that whoever has had experience of public life and is able to draw correct conclusions knows what the press really signifies. It is painful to me to have to make this observation.”
After the business part of the General Meeting, it proceeded to its real affairs. Dr. Steiner lectured on Disease and the Physiognomy of Death and on Ancient Nordic Myths and Sagas.
Early in November Austria was again visited. Lectures in Prague dealt with The Riddles of Existence, while in Vienna there were given between November 7 and 10, among other lectures, two on So-Called Dangers of Occult Development and Inner Esoteric Life and Supersensible Knowledge. A widespread use of the word “occultism” in a wrong sense made it necessary to spread a true knowledge of the supersensible. A final lecture in Graz threw light upon the subject of The Mystery of Death and the Riddle of Life.
An important event now occurred in Basel, where a long-heralded course of lectures on The Gospel of St. John was delivered between November 16 and 25. It was the first of the four Gospel cycles which Rudolf Steiner gave, begun in Switzerland and continued in other countries. The courses on the Gospels of St. John, St. Luke, and St. Mark were given in Basel, and that on the Gospel of St. Matthew in Bern. The Basel Group, which had arranged the conference, had been in existence since 1906. The Johannes Group, in Bern, was founded on December 14, 1907, shortly after this course, as I was informed by Frau Martha Thut. Thanks to the friendly cooperation of the Government, the eight lectures took place in the Great Hall of the De Wette School building. Here, too, a public lecture was delivered on November 23 on the subject Natural Science at the Crossroads.
Our present purpose is not to give the content of these comprehensive lecture cycles dealing with the Gospels, which opened up an entirely new sphere of Christian knowledge. Later, the Basel cycle, which was repeated in Hamburg at the end of May 1908, was made available in printed form. We shall later mention ensuing discussions which arose with so-called expert theological circles as a natural consequence of the spiritual-scientific expositions and the cosmological interpretations applied in the lectures to the introductory words of St. John’s Gospel, and to the entire evolution of man. From the outset, Rudolf Steiner did not intend to address himself to those who find satisfaction in the customary and familiar ways or, without feeling the need for exercising their understanding, are willing to leave everything comfortably in the sphere of faith. There was no intention of disturbing such people. But there are many persons who, because of the awakened consciousness of our time, are looking for a new inner experience and spiritual grasp of the Gospel text. True to his principles, Rudolf Steiner would not stand aloof from their questionings. In a lecture of January 11, 1916, at Liestal, near Basel, he unequivocally stated his attitude toward this problem:
“Now, it is often asked how spiritual science, or Anthroposophy, stands in relation to the religious life of man—and this is said to be an obvious question. By reason of the whole character of Anthroposophy, it will not intervene in any religious creed, in the sphere of any sort of religious life. In this connection I should like to make myself clear in the following manner. We do not imagine that, through becoming acquainted with nature, we are thereby able of ourselves to create something in nature. Knowing about nature does not create anything in nature. Likewise, we shall not imagine that, by becoming acquainted with spiritual conditions, we shall be able to intervene creatively in spiritual facts. What we do is to observe spiritual facts. Spiritual science seeks to achieve knowledge of the secrets of spiritual facts. Religions are facts in the historical life of humanity. Spiritual science can, of course, extend so far as to observe those spiritual phenomena which, in the course of world evolution, arise as religions. But spiritual science never can entertain the wish to create a religion, any more than natural science would give way to the delusion of being able to create something in nature. Thus the most diverse confessions of faith may dwell together in perfect peace and harmony within the circle of the spiritual-scientific world conception and strive there for knowledge of the Spirit—strive, indeed, so that no single person’s religious conviction need thereby be disturbed in the least degree. Nor need earnestness in the practice of faith or a religious cult be lessened in any way by what spiritual science offers to a person. On the contrary, one is compelled to say that natural science, in the form in which it appears in our own time, has to a large extent seduced men from a religious conception of life, from a true inner religious feeling. And our experience in the spiritual scientific Movement indicates that those people who are estranged from religious life by the halfRUDOLF truths of natural science can be led back to it by spiritual science. Nobody need in any way be turned against his religious life through spiritual science. One cannot, therefore, call spiritual science, as such, a religious faith. It neither aims at creating a religious faith nor in any way at changing a person in relation to his religious beliefs. In spite of this, it seems as if people were worrying themselves about the religion of the Anthroposophists. In truth, however, it is not possible to speak in this way; because, within the Anthroposophical Society, every kind of religion is represented, and there is nothing to prevent any one from practicing his religious faith as fully, comprehensively, and intensively as he wishes. Spiritual science desires only to include the whole world in its survey; it desires also to take into consideration the historical life, including the highest spirituality which has entered into historical life. Thus it happens that the spiritual-scientific world conception in a certain sense can only deepen a person also in regard to questions of the religious life.”
It thus becomes clear that the Gospel lecture cycles were not intended to found a “new religion,” but aimed rather to place the noblest of ancient documents in the spiritual history of mankind at the central point, both in time and in space, of the sphere of spiritual knowledge. It is the true task of our time to insure that religious experience and the spiritual world picture shall not contradict but shall supplement one another. This rightful demand was both recognized and fulfilled by Rudolf Steiner.
Subsequently to the Basel lecture cycle on the Gospel of St. John, which opened the door for many persons into a world of spiritual and religious experience, several lectures at Nuremberg and Munich were now devoted to natural-scientific and medical questions of the day. There followed then a tour to Stuttgart, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Elberfeld, Bonn, and Cologne. As a contribution to the Christmas celebration, Rudolf Steiner lectured on Thoughts from the Wisdom of Life (Vita Sophia). The Easter lecture of this year having been applied to The Mysteries of the Spirit, the Son, and the Father, ending with the words, “Ye shall know the truth through the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” the Christmas Mystery was now presented in its relation with “the Spirit of the Earth,” and this lecture ended with the challenge:
“Our festivals will thus again become something which will pervade human souls like a breath of life; on such festival occasions man will again enter fully into the working and weaving of a soul and spirit nature. And the student of spiritual science is to feel in advance, as a pioneer, what the festivals can become if humanity shall again comprehend the Spirit, shall experience what is the meaning of again comprehending ‘the Spirit in the festivals.’ ”
After a week of work in Cologne during the Christmas season, the eventful year was ended with an address on Goethe’s Christmas and Easter poem, The Mysteries.